He had been suffering from cancer and pneumonia, spokesman Mark DeMoss.

The GREAT Billy Graham is dead. There was nobody like him! He will be missed by Christians and all religions. A very special man.

In 1983, President Reagan gave Mr Graham the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour.

He pioneered the use of prime-time telecasts, network radio, newspaper columns, evangelistic feature films and satellite TV links with his catch phrase "the Bible says".

In Sheffield in 1985

Born on 7 November, 1918, on his family's dairy farm near Charlotte, Mr Graham came from a fundamentalist background.

But he rejected that view to join New Evangelicalism which abandoned the narrowness of fundamentalism to engage broader society.

He was ordained in 1939, after attending Florida Bible Institute, and founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1950.

He became a rising star after a 1949 Los Angeles revival, when publisher William Randolph Hearst ordered his reporters to cover the new preacher who was speaking in a "canvas cathedral".

Mr Graham said he never found out why the reporters had been told to "hype" him.

Over the next few decades his crusades drew millions to hear him speak. In London, more than two million people came to listen during a 12-week campaign in 1954.

In New York, three years later, a six-week crusade had to be turned into 16 week crusade, including a rally in Times Square with more than 100,000 people in attendance.

Mr Graham and his wife Ruth Bell Graham had five children, two of who are also ministers now.

His daughter Anne Graham Lotz is a Christian author and speaker and one son William Franklin Graham is now head of the BGEA.

Mr Graham avoided any sex or money scandals by keeping meticulous watch over his staff and finances.

He did come under fire for being too moderate during the civil rights movement, but ended segregated seating at his southern crusades in 1953, a year before the US Supreme Court ruled on it.

In tribute, Vice President Mike Pence said: "Karen and I were saddened to learn of the passing of one of the greatest Americans of the century, Reverend Billy Graham. We send our deepest condolences to the Graham family.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is an organization started by Billy Graham in 1950. The main focus of the BGEA is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible. BGEA does this through a variety of ways, including Graham's trademark "crusade"-style ministry, with large gatherings in major metropolitan areas; evangelism training; youth outreach; disaster response; television broadcasts; radio programs; Decision magazine; and the newly opened Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. BGEA was formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota during Graham's time in the region; it later moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Graham's son, Franklin Graham, and his grandson, Will Graham, also hold evangelistic outreaches under the banner of the BGEA.

BGEA's television specials are broadcast across the United States in primetime an average of four times a year. BGEA also produces a radio program called Hour of Decision, which began in 1950 and is broadcast around the world. BGEA publishes Decision magazine eleven times a year.

In 2006 the BGEA launched a youth evangelism training program called "Dare to Be a Daniel." BGEA began an international evangelism project in 2002 called My Hope, in which local believers invite friends, neighbors and relatives to their homes to watch a national telecast featuring Billy or Franklin Graham, translated into their language. The project has seen more than 9.8 million people make decisions for Christ since its inception.

Graham and his ministry have also been instrumental in the setting up of Christianity Today Magazine, Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, and the Internet Evangelism Coalition.[citation needed]BGEA's Charlotte headquarters is the site of the Billy Graham Library, which was formally dedicated on May 31, 2007, with former U. S. Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton in attendance.